


Atmosphere and Details in Games

by Roselily2006



Series: Essays I made for class that didn't really need to be essays [4]
Category: Cuphead (Video Game), Hollow Knight (Video Games), Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:14:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28152930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roselily2006/pseuds/Roselily2006
Summary: The finished version of my essay.
Series: Essays I made for class that didn't really need to be essays [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2050281
Kudos: 8





	Atmosphere and Details in Games

**Author's Note:**

> This essay was made for this project:
> 
> Your assignment for the remainder of the week:
> 
> Select three console or PC video games from different genres (Adventure, JRPG, Sports, Action, etc). You may not reuse games, series, or genres. Due to school policy, restrictions on network, and ratings restrictions, you may not use M rated games.  
> Research: You may play the game for a half hour, or watch half an hour of gameplay videos for the game.  
> Be careful to pay extra attention to the following:  
> Atmosphere whenever there is a shift in tone, such as an incoming boss, tense/shocking moment, or a change in difficulty.  
> Explain the game's atmosphere and all aspects that tie into it.  
> Pay attention to the changing lighting, sounds, music, graphics, changes in tone, etc, and document all of it.  
> Lastly, note whether or not you would consider the game to be atmospheric (having a strong atmosphere) or not, and defend you answer using details from the game.  
> Challenge as the game progresses.  
> Rewards for completing challenges.  
> Not just objects, rewards can also be new areas or challenges unlocked, as we want to continue playing the game.  
> The balance between realism and fun.  
> Record all of these details about your chosen game, including the name of the game, and the console(PS4, Switch, PC, etc) it was played on, as you play in a Word or Google Doc.  
> It should be more than two full pages. The following format is required:
> 
> 12 pt font, Times new Roman or Arial.  
> Double Spaced.  
> 1" Margins (Standard, so no need to edit them).  
> This will be due Friday 12/18. It will be a major grade.
> 
> NOTE: You may use the game you used on the homework assignment that was similar to this (and the notes you took) and count it as one of your three.

One game that utilizes atmosphere in its design is Hollow Knight. In fact, it tells its story mainly through its atmosphere. One interesting part of its design is that each area in the game’s world has a different main color. The Forgotten Crossroads use cool blues. The Fog Canyon uses ethereal light purples, while the Crystal Peak uses darker purples and indigos. Both vegetation heavy areas use green, but Queen’s Gardens uses a richer, fuller green. And of course, the Ancient Basin uses greys, while the Void-filled Abyss is almost entirely composed of shades of black. This is a huge contrast to the White Palace, which true to its name, is entirely shades of white, except for very important rooms, where the presence of Void is clear from the black palette. These colors help players feel the mood each area is trying to evoke.

Of course, the main threat of the game, the Infection, also uses this. Its bright orange stands out from the cooler colors of the areas. It really helps cement its otherworldly presence. This is especially apparent when the Forgotten Crossroads become the Infected Crossroads. The stark contrast between the cool blues and the sudden orange pustules and vines overtaking the area makes it feel truly like a spreading threat. This is added to by the pulsating sounds and movements made by said pustules, which give a feeling of a living growth.

Of course, the atmosphere is not just visual. The music and sound design of the game is impeccable. The music never feels out of place. The boss music fits each opponent, especially the stark, regal theme of the Mantis Lords, the royal warrior’s trumpets of the Hive Knight, and the dance of Grimm. Even the distorted battle theme of the Collector and the frenzied strings of Nosk fit their creepiness. 

A great example of this is the music for the battle against the eponymous Hollow Knight. It starts off as a bombastic fight theme, before suddenly ending with a scream and picking back up as a somber piano melody as the Knight stabs itself, over and over, before collapsing. The theme from then on is a piano piece reminiscent of the main theme, as you watch this broken husk of a creature continue to fight, more as a puppet for the Infection than a warrior, stabbing itself more. Even its attacks are more based around weaponizing the Infection than its large blade. You feel like this is less of a battle, and more you putting it out of its misery. This is a stark contrast to the theme of the true final boss, the source of the infection, the Radiance. Its theme is more regal and grandiose, reflecting its god status. The fight culminates in you, the Hollow Knight, and the countless other vessels destroying the Radiance in your void forms.

The music can also help the characters establish the atmosphere. In the room leading to the Crystal Peak, you hear, and can talk to, a little miner bug named Myla as she sings a song. While the lyrics are sad, talking about burying a family, Myla is bright and upbeat. However, the more you progress in the game, the more she seems to lose herself. Eventually, you enter the room to find silence. In Myla’s place is another miner enemy, overtaken by the Infection. When you kill her, her scream rings out. Myla was lost to the Infection. Even now, months after I experienced this, hearing her song still makes me tear up.

The best part of Hollow Knight’s atmosphere is how it is used to tell the story. I’ve already talked about how Hollow Knight brilliantly utilizes environmental storytelling, but this is also helped by the atmosphere. The tragic tale of a great sacrifice that was ultimately made in vain is spectacularly shown in its atmosphere of an abandoned kingdom, ravaged by an otherworldly menace.

In more minor cases, the Mantis Village is dripping with the atmosphere of a warrior tribe’s village. Little details like the spears and shields mounted as trophies or put up as warnings, how you have to challenge the Mantis Lords - something you only do with them and the Radiance, how they bow to you upon defeat, and afterwards, the previously hostile tribe members bow to you as well, it is impeccable.

Deepnest is a great example of atmosphere. The background music that’s less music and more sounds and tense snippets, the enemies that range from startling to incredibly disturbing, the tight, mazelike passageways and layout, the darkness that hides terrors and threatens to take you in, it’s tense and frightening. In fact, some enemies can often only be seen from the light of their eyes before they attack. It gets especially scary when the enemies include burrowing maggot-things, flying maggots with teeth-filled maws and that poop out said maggot-things, and starting enemies. That last one may seem out of place, but once you kill one, it’s a roll of the dice whether it shakes, sprouts teeth and new legs, and starts scrambling towards you, its spidery legs skittering on the ground. Did I mention it can climb platforms?

Even the grubs you collect throughout the map aren’t safe. If you don’t know to dreamnail them, a grub you freed could sprout teeth and legs, and, with continuous ear-piercing screeches, starts rushing toward you. On top of that, once you kill it, its corpse resembles a hollowed-out grub. Thankfully, the Hunter’s Journal says grub mimics are not, in fact, actual grubs. Doesn’t make them any less scary, though.

This is taken up to eleven with the area’s big secret. Crystal Dash in a certain spot, and you’ll find a small ledge with a breakable wall. Go in, and free a grub or two, and there’s another breakable wall. Head in, and you’ll see another one of you, separated by a wall. Continue, and you’ll see it a few more times, always just out of reach. Follow it, and you’ll be led through a path littered with corpses. Dreamnail them, and their thoughts are: “...Missed you…” “...No...” “...How?...” “...My face…” “...Wrong…” “...You were dead?...” “...Don’t run…” “...Brother…” “...Come back…” “...Dearest…” So already, something seems very wrong. Eventually, you end up in a hallway, and the path closes behind you several times as you walk down it. It leads to a room where strung-up corpses hang from the ceiling, and your duplicate is standing on a raised platform in the center. Walk close enough, and with a screech, its neck snaps. With several unsettling cracks, it slowly reveals itself to be a giant spider creature with your upside-down likeness for a face. Your horns become its mouth as it screeches again, and the fight with Nosk begins. Sadly, you can cheese the fight by pressing up against the side of the platform.

Another scary example of atmosphere is the Hidden Village in Deepnest. For starters, the idea that anyone would live here is already a red flag. Also, the place is dripping with spider motif, as the houses are hanging cocoons of web. To add to it, one of the two cocoons you can enter houses a pile of wrapped up corpses, with a lone wrapped up corpse on the other side. The pile of corpses can be dreamnailed to get “...Not friends…” and the lone corpse gets you “...They lied…” Once again, clearly something is up here. 

The main building houses a group of villagers who seem to be standing in an oddly bouncing manner in a room with a bench in the center. Now, in Hollow Knight, benches are your checkpoints. Your progress is saved, your map is updated, you can change your charms, and your HP is restored to full. Talk to the villagers, and they say this: “Greetings. You are very tired. Sit and rest.” “We are friends. Welcome. Sit and rest.” “Please sit and rest.” “It is warm and safe. Sit and rest.” “Welcome. You need rest. Sit and rest.” You also can’t dreamnail them, which seems to suggest that they have no thoughts. Also, their dialogue noise is oddly musical. To add to the creepy factor, they are all wearing the same robes, which cover everything but their mask-like heads. The music isn’t helping, either. It’s an eerie, almost cult like tune that basically screams danger.

Of course, due to either plot or stupidity, you sit down, and are immediately trapped by some web. Pressing controls only makes you struggle as the villagers approach you and the music slows before the screen fades to black. You fade back in to you stuck in a web, which you eventually free yourself from. To add to the eeriness, once you return to the room, the villagers are gone, with only their robes and heads remaining. There’s no bodies to be found, and the bench is destroyed.

On the lighter side of things, Stardew Valley is a game that also uses atmosphere. Its simple pixel style gives it a certain charm, and characters still seem to come to life with funny animations dripping with personality. It’s full of little things like how if you stand in an NPC’s way, they get annoyed.

It also has a great environment. Each season is distinct and interesting, and most add something to the foreground: petals for spring, butterflies for summer, and leaves for fall. While winter doesn’t have something in the foreground, it replaces rain with snow.

One game that is well known for its atmosphere is Cuphead. Styled after 1930s cartoons, the game’s animations were actually hand-drawn. The music was recorded live, and has the distinct scratchy, jazzy sound.

One unique thing about Cuphead is its death screens. Instead of a simple “Game over! Retry?” It has a short rhyme from the boss, an accompanying image, and a visual that shows your progress before you died, with a little Cuphead on a path towards the finish line, with markers for different boss phases. This greatly helps with playing the game, as it’s notorious for its difficult bosses, and knowing how close you were can help motivate you to keep trying.

**Author's Note:**

> No I don't have a favorite out of these three, what made you think that?


End file.
